Back from the Banya!

 
I was thinking it would have been funny if david could say he went to the banya with vanya but it is probably better that he went by himself. I will post at least some of david's culture study notes/experience that he is working on writing up now but I'll tell you some of it now in case you can't wait to hear all about it:) Interesting experience for sure. amazing culture study. He met an older drunk man who talked and talked, got david some food (horse deli meat, red onions and dark bread, with some runny jam to drink in his tea), and he bought david a full body massage (which is done in the buff by a man in the buff -hopefully david will share about that later) Very good experience indeed, confronts many wrong things about our culture for sure and demonstrated many differences in our thinking. So glad he went.
When he got home Emma got to wear the banya hat and get a little massage herself before bed. she liked hearing about daddy being whipped by the branches and being so hot it hurt. I liked hearing about the friendly man yelling out loudly and drunkily -Three kids, bring this guy champagne! or about how he made david an onion and horse sandwich moving the onions back and forth and back and forth on the pieces of bread because he was sooo drunk but wanted to be hospitable to david. Maybe the guy was rich, he had his driver with him who told david he always gets drunk and this loud everytime he comes to the banya. too much to write down really. hopefully david will have time while he remembers all his feelings to write them down good. 

This is a personal banya that you would find in the country i guess, not the big building kind that david is going to but same thing, different experience. 

sanduny banya

if you'd like to see a few pics and read more about the banya, here is the website for the one david has chosen to visit. it has the history and some other info on it. don't worry....there aren't pics of the men bathing:)

"S lyogkim parom!" May the steam be with you!

So tomorrow we have a culture study day and david has decided to be brave and adventurous and go to the Banya. the banya is a sweathouse/sauna/bath/social outing. i have a picture in my mind of a whole lot of bigger older hairier men sitting around in the buff drinking and socializing... the one david is going to is 18th century style (decorations etc.) and has the men and women divided (thankfully) we'll see what it is really like, well we will hear when he returns. he won't take pics i'm sure, that would be strange.... here are some of the rules we were reading tonight so david will know what to do. i told david he could offer to fix the english on their website for a free visit.

Unwritten rules
If you met somebody in the doorway of the bath the
priority takes the coming in without taking age into
account.

Never deny elderly men to sweat them out with a
besom.

Immediately bring the man felt bad in the washroom
or in the sweating-room into the checkroom and help
him.

Don't conflict with bath clients and provote
quarrels.

Advises are of pure recommendation nature

1. First sweat out then wash.
2. It's useful to take a shower (2-3 min.) before
the sweating.
3. Don't wet your head but it's useful to wet the
hat with cold water.
4. Come into the sweating-room only with the hat
(better felted and wide-brimmed) or make a turban
from the towel.
5. Choose shorter, fluffier and lighter besoms
(better two).
6. Mittens help to provote callosities on the palms
from besoms.
7. At the first time in the sweating-room first warm
up without besom 5-7 min. Then drink hot tea to warm
up "on the inside".
8. Add only boiling water with small portions and
only on the hottest place of the (the water will
"flap" or "explode"), the steam will be dry and
light or mild.
9. You should have rest after the sweating-room,
shouldn't cold yourself and sit on a draughty place.
10. The duration of the bath depends on your health
state but you shouldn't overdo it.
11. A very good principles for the bath are course
and moderation.
12. If you are ready to bathe in snow or to dip into
the fonts with ice-cold water. You are already in
the bath and have visited the sweating-room. And now
you can try - first warm up well in the
sweating-room and then go rapidly into the
water/snow and again rapidly into the sweating-room,
sweat out well with a besom. You'll feel
indescribable pleasure!

can't wait to hear david's stories.....

all tuckered out

 
we went sledding again this morning and had lots of fun. not too cold and wonderfully big snowflakes falling, it was beautiful. we came back for soup and kolbassa and cabbage and now josiah who didn't want to nap fell asleep on the couch. saturdays are always nice. 

it's hot in here

 
wasn't long ago we were complaining about being too cold, well now it's too hot. -6 outside now, it seems the heaters are set to work great at -12? there doesn't seem to be a thermostat so instead of wearing lots of clothes we are in minimal clothing. josiah does not like bare feet. huddy is like me and doesn't like socks. but jo will cry the whole time his feet are uncovered when the necessary change of socks comes. though jo does has awfully soft feet like his daddy whereas emma, huddy and i could all use a good exfoliation.
anyway we are hoping for the weather to be in the -12 to -15 range so the inside is a nice temperature:) 

favorite snack

 
Click on this pic to make it bigger and then you can see the box and his cute expressions. both josiah and hudson love them. and they had way too many this morning... interesting diapers tonight:) no more green though. 

hi from josiah

 
maybe he's so happy cause it's warm again. it is only maybe -11 out now and unfortunately it is tooo hot inside. emma loves being able to wear her little skirt and tank tops again. she does not like sleeves. she says ballerina's don't wear sleeves. true. 

Hudson Ezekiel is now 1

 
 

 
trying out all the toys. the wooden bee (looks more like a butterfly) is a classic russian toy and even the truck was made in russia. i found a little section that has only russian toys at the big kids store that are soooo much cheaper than all the lego, disney, fisher price etc. that is imported. but we love that stuff too, it is just cheaper at home. 

Yay! New toys!

 
ok so he doesn't look especially excited about them but he did like them and played with them lots before bedtime. he has the funniest expressions, like a puppy dog or something:) we love you huddy. these are classic russian toys. the mushroom and russian girl make noises (like my old red apple mom, or was it yours robin?) and rock back and forth. 

this is for you hudson

 
hudson was very calm tonight, maybe worn out, happy but not excited:) funny expressions that make me smile when i look at him. 

happy birthday to huddy

 
the cake was different. it was kinda like marshmallow on top and the middle was like mousse and the bottom was like normal pie crust. not too yummy, no flavour really. but now we know. they don't have cakes like safeway cakes. mmm. though they have lots and lots of sweets and chocolates and we have had some really good cakes like black foresty types. someday we'll know all the good ones to buy... 

a russian torte

 
the boys are taking a nap (all 3 of them:) so emma and i are getting huddy's presents wrapped and emma can't wait to open up the cake to see what it looks like. it is very common to see people carrying these little torte boxes around by the string handle. his first russian birthday cake on his first birthday:) 

peekaboo's

 
ok huddy was doing some peekabooing after breakfast so here are some of the faces 

here is the little one year old...

 
special treat, cookies for breakfast:) you'll notice he has a few scratches and dings from all his climbing tricks but not too bad yet. he ate most of a green crayon the other day so his diaper this morning had a greenish tinge to it. he loves to make funny noises and faces, maybe i'll get some of those faces on camera later... 

picture for hudson

 
emma drew this for hudson while he was eating his cookies for breakfast. "it is our family in a russian park that is different because it has grass and it is warm but we all have our own climbing thing" says emma. she came and asked me to write huddy on a piece of paper and then she looks at it and writes it herself on her piece of paper. she did a good job with her name this time as i'm not sure why but she always gets it going backwards, maybe because she is a lefty? when she goes slower and thinks she writes to the right but when she goes fast it goes ammE. anyway. i guess huddy is the littlest blue person. 

huddy is one!

Privyethe isn't awake yet so i can't put a pic of him on yet, i'm sure he looks older:) i'll get some of him opening up his presents later. we got him some traditional russian toys which are pretty neat.
dad, 8 people died here from the cold last week here in Moscow alone so maybe about the same as poland.
it is only -15 today so I'm thinking of getting the kids outside for a change.
we'll see...
oh, i think i hear the birthday boy....

we are hooked up, well not hooked up i guess

Privyet
we are finally hooked up to wireless unlimited high speed internet.... so nice. it only took us 8 months to do so! not only do we not know russian well but we also don't know computer language well so the combination of the two was tricky. we had a russian computer guy come over here for a price of course but he figured it all out and now I am writing to you sitting on the couch while david is on the phone. and i finally loaded up a newsletter i haven't been able to do with our previous connection. fun. i'll have to use self control and not stay up all night playing settlers or looking at everyone's blogs...i'll post again soon i'm sure now that it doesn't cost money, well sort of:)

we are still warm...

 
we didn't have internet for a couple of days so it was exciting to go on just now and see all the comments and emails at once. yes, it is still cold here -20ish not as bad as it was though it isn't supposed to improve for a while... but we still have heat in our apartment which is so good. the boys haven't been outside for a long time now, maybe tomorrow. emma has been out for a couple of quick walks and we have been asked why she is outside.
what's new...hmm. oh emma wanted to play scrabble the other night so we did, though she really couldn't read the letters (russian) and basically just put out all her letters and made up some meaning. fun anyway.
we had a busy day today as first david had class in our kitchen in the morning with viola, then in the afternoon Vanya and david had a language session and then tonight I had my session with maya. now it is only 10 and all the kids and david are asleep. i will be too soon.
we should be hooked up with wireless highspeed adsl soon. we have the router thing and are paying for unlimited internet already but can't figure out how to get them to work together etc. wish we had robin here to help us out. but we just heard today that there is someone who can help us so hopefully it won't be long cause we don't like to buy the internet time cards when we are already paying for unlimited.
I'm gonna take a look at more of your comments and emails and blogs. thanks for all the notes. 

saturday morning cartoons

 
thought you'd like to see a picture of a real russian cartoon. no blues clues or dora here:) cute eh 

thanks poppy!

 
we got a special treat this morning, a package from poppy, thanks dad.. Emma and david braved the cold weather and went to the post office to pick up the package.. david was told a few times that she shouldn't have been out in the cold but it is only -27? -25? today and she hasn't been out all week so we thought it was ok:) funny. anyway, thanks for the package dad, great stuff, the socks fit all the kids great cause they all pretty much have the same size feet and it is great to have some new books to read to the kids. and we just ran out of hot chocolate yesterday so perfect timing:)

we have been keeping our oven on all day so it isn't quite as cold in the house, gas is cheap here. it should be getting a little warmer next week too.. 

up to no good again

 
Hudson is tricky to look after lately... he is working on his 5th tooth now so he is grumpy again but what makes him happy is climbing which is dangerous so we take him down off the piano or table and then he cries again. Good thing josiah wasn't so adventurous when he was the same age as huddy is now cause that is when we brought home huddy:) josiah is not very brave, in fact if you hold him up in the air he will have a little panic cry. But huddy is different and does things we've never experienced before. Notice on top of the piano is where we put the things the boys shouldn't play with like cell phones, pens and the camera... 4 days till hudson is one! 

a russian lunch

 
typical russian foods- Kolbaca, хлеб (bread), сыр(cheese), mayo and mayo/mushroom salad. good thing we walk lots. I went to class today and the 30 minute walk was so cold, all I had showing thanks to my special hat from mom was my eyes though they were sooo cold. I tried not to have any breath land on them cause they would frost and freeze up in an instant. But it was kinda fun. We still have heat in our apartment though it keeps getting colder. the kitchen is really cold because it is so small and the window is so big so when i got back today the kids were eating their lunches with their hats on. Good daddy:) I don't know who controls the heat whether it is someone in our building or some guy somewhere in moscow but we sure wish we could turn it up today. though before this week we would have wanted it down. how picky. anyway. we are keeping warm enough and are making good use of all the hats, long undies, socks and hot chocolate that was sent here for us. Thanks again! 

getting colder

 

I'm not sure if it is colder outside now but it is cooling off in our apartment. One of the few times the kids all have shirts, pants and socks on:) they are doing some figure skating to keep warm. we were watching tennis before, looked nice and warm in australia... 

cold day

 

it is currently -33 degrees celsius and it really is cold. i guess because the windows are so bad in our apartment. we are fine though just wearing more clothes than usual and drinking up our hot chocolate. i took this picture because i just noticed that all the cars are still here this morning. normally there is only one or two left. i guess they wouldn't start as there are no plug in's here. the metro must be really crowded this morning. they have shut down most unneeded factories and businesses today hoping to prevent power outages. ikea is one of the last ones that will be shut down which is nice to hear. if our heating stops working here we will head to ikea to keep warm... 

not a baby anymore.... hudson can not be left alone for long now. i thought hudson was with me in his room and when i went to find him this is what i found;) he had climbed up on a pulled out chair and then onto the table and then to really show off he tried to stand on his head. He hasn't had any bad falls yet but we better keep a closer eye on him. emma and josiah must be less adventurous cause we just aren't used to these things.... 

siberian cold front

Privyet
we have been having mild temperatures here with a usual low of -2 or -4 but this week there is a cold front that is coming in and it will get down to -30 C or more. i see it is already -25 C this morning so david's walk to school this morning will be different then usual:) too bad there aren't coffee shops like tim's to get a coffee at on the way...It is good practice though as we know cold is in our future, the temps in siberia have been down to -50 lately. Yikes!

daddy back at work with language study. the boys like to sit and listen to david and vanya but usually we keep them out of the room so david can focus better. i have my language session with maya later today. 

huddy playing with lego